An Encounter with 'Shaan'

SHAAN - The Singing Sensation
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Shaan, a household name in India; when sings extracts the harmonies from even the dead souls. Gals go nuts seeing him in concert, and guys see him as their idol. Man, such ravishing looks and the voice ohh gosh, whom I regard as the Nightingale of India. Every Friday night, as the gods of violence step down to my abode, with Armageddon on their minds and taking my mom as the divine warrior they together kick the living hell out of me even if I bring the thought of watching T.V. at 10 P.M in my god damn brain. That's when Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is aired on national television. Com'on mom Shaan is not your son, but I am.

But then also I admire Shaan as a great singer. Such versatility and such stability in singing, that couldn't be just god's gift. This is the perseverance of a determined man that has been rewarded.


Miracles do happen in small places
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It is said that 'miracles can happen anywhere'. In this case I completely agree with the statement. Sometimes I stand aghast looking at people who say this place very boring. That’s may be someone’s perception that I cannot change, but GOD DAMN IT, JUST CHANGE YOUR BLOODY MINDSET!!

One Saturday evening, my dad came to me. My local soccer derby had already started. But what’s in his hand? My results, or some kind of proof of my wrongdoings. Am I a perpetrator? Would he break the ice? “Beta”, he said
“This is your pass for the Shaan concert”. Oh those words, as if honey bees humming their religious chants; thousands of pearls bouncing on the white marble floor of the Tajmahal. WAIT A MINUTE! You said whose concert? Am I listening the true words? Oh god I’ll surely faint now. I am holding the pass of Shaan’s concert.

With a gush of adrenaline and wave of excitement I went to join the derby with an aim to kill. It surely rewarded me with 2 goals to end my weeklong barren run.

D Day – The Concert
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“ 2nd May - It's my b'day! ”

Jayant, a friend of mine and I decided to go to the concert together. “Is it going to be crowded?” he asked. My stern face and deadly gaze said it all.
On first sight, it seemed as they have organized a Kumbh Mela. God, am I going to be lost in this crowd?

Inside we were reunited with Bhalla. Oh f***, I’ve never seen such big stage in Bhilai. Suddenly there was a great uproar, which reminded me of the same mania that I saw on T.V when AC Milan became champions of Europe. Is that Superman? Is that Mr. Incredible? Sure, he was!! The chants for Shaan tore the skies apart. Jayant pinch me yaar! But I knew that was true. He was in front of me!!

Starting on with ‘Kal se koi’ he completely grabbed and glued the audience to their seats. He was just like a candle in the wind, singing such melodious tracks for which some guys would just throw hundreds of bucks to buy the CD. The Sunday night breeze gave an extra ecstasy to savour on. Many chartbusters like ‘Tune mujhe pehchana nahi’, ‘Bhool ja’, ‘Tanha dil’, ‘Kuch to hua hai’, ‘Mai aisa kyu hu’, ‘Le chale’, etc followed soon. Man, this moment needed to be captured in heart for rest of my life. But who knew what was coming next…

“Jayant, this is the opportunity of a lifetime, we gotta do something, we gotta meet Shaan”. He was humming his final tune. No barricade, no security was going to stop us. This was paranoid. Somehow we reached near the stage. Oh gosh, about 40-50 people were already on the stage yelling, “Shaan we love you!” while the ‘Tholas’ were busy denying them. The next sight was a complete shocker. The wooden ramp on which junta was standing collapsed as the Berlin Wall. I helped a little girl to attain her balance as she was completely on me.

Surrounded by security personnels he sped away to the Green room. What the f***, I was unable to get even an autograph. What am I supposed to do? I was completely crestfallen.

The Encounter
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“Ankit, lets go home yaar”, discontent and dejection was reflecting from Jayant’s face. But the club manager is his family friend, isn’t he? Suddenly, there was a light in the almost dark situation, as if somebody has drawn a hole in the sky’s black canopy with his Deagle. Suddenly there was P.O.D singing “Youth of the Nation” in my mind! Suddenly heart was beating at the rate of 90 beats per min.

Our sources informed us about his base camp in Bhilai. Next sight was of a white Honda City roaring on the silent roads of Bhilai in the graveyard shift, as a mad bull. “Ankit, 110 % there is Shaan in that car” Jayant yelled. And the next moment we were in our running shoes. Jayant grabbed his Splendor and raced it as if it was ‘Hayaboosa’. The most amazing fact was that, there was no crew following their car. First time we were passing through the lonely road of 32 bunglows and I wasn’t gazing at the B.I.T girl’s hostel. I asked Jayant to overtake them in order to prevent any kind of suspicion. It was a sine qua non for us. A look at my watch: 1.45 A.M. We arrived at Sagar International hotel before them. Oh heavens! The Honda has arrived. Now I need a kick on my a55 to believe my eyes.

Shaan came out of the car and found two statuesques namely Jayant and Anks standing at the entrance. Words were not coming out! “Shaan nice to meet you, we are great fan of yours.” Saying this we gave him a bear hug each. Spellbound we were!! We took our shares of autographs and saw the popper hurriedly disappear to his business suite thru the lobby. Cool isn’t it! But alas, time to leave. Again a look at my watch: 2.15 A.M.

Again we were racing down the Durg lanes and cherishing the moments of glory. But suddenly he screeched the brakes of his bike. “Ankit lets take a snap”, Jayant exclaimed, but we were doomed as there was no camera (we guys are dumb-a55e5). Saying this we raced to B.I.T. The hostel was buzzing with life at such a wee hour also. But man such ill luck nobody had a camera and the guys who had, were asleep. All we were able to get was a Nokia mobile phone with camera. Again we raced back to the hotel. The babe who was the lead singer of the band was chilling in the lobby. She was sooo HHHOTTT!! We got all our guts suddenly from the heavens and approached her. What info we extracted was that they were about to leave. As we were indulged in some friendly chat, we saw Shaan coming out with all his baggage. “Arre, you again!!” Shaan queried. “Ya, sure we want to be the last guys to see you off,” I answered. Then we conducted our high profile photo shoot. There was a message printed on my t-shirt – ‘Thank God for making women…or else who would do the washing, cleaning, etc’. Before going he said, “Always respect women”. Then we shook hands with him and he boarded the bus and disappeared through the dark silhouettes of durg.

Time check: 3.10 A.M. We knew that Armageddon would occur tonight as we reach home but anyways both of us were smiling from the heart. Then we roared the cold-hearted engine of Jayant’s ‘Splendor’ and zoomed to our homes tearing the roads apart.